β-carboline biomediators induce reveromycin production in Streptomyces sp. SN-593

The biosynthetic potential of soil-dwelling actinomycetes to produce diverse bioactive molecules that are useful as drug seeds has been achieved in the laboratory by modifying culture conditions. Availability of a small molecule that can induce secondary metabolism in these microbes can greatly facilitate the exploration of bioactive natural products. In this manuscript, through the screening of natural products and chemical modification, we demonstrated that the presence of the β-carboline compound, BR-1, enhanced reveromycin A production in Streptomyces sp. SN-593. BR-1 induced reveromycins production at the wide range of concentrations without affecting cell growth. Our study indicates that BR-1 might serve as an alternative to activate specialized metabolite biosynthesis without genetic engineering.